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A Footnote to the Famous Vidal v. Buckley Exchange

When William F. Buckley died, in 2008, Gore Vidal gallantly wrote, “RIP WFP—in Hell.” In passing, he also referred to Christopher Buckley, WFB’s son, as “creepy” and “brain-dead.”

In the New Republic, Christopher Buckley now ponders why Vidal felt such bile toward WFB, even in his last years. In truth, he doesn’t offer much of an answer, but he does add this interesting detail about the famously contentious exchange the two patrician polemicists had on TV, in 1968:

If you look closely at the footage of the 1968 TV contretemps between WFB and Vidal, you’ll see WFB trying to rise out of his chair at the moment of maximum heat. If you look very closely, you’ll see him physically straining, but something holding him back.

A few days before, he was sailing in Long Island Sound when a Coast Guard cutter zoomed past his sailboat, knocking him to the deck, breaking his collarbone. During the Chicago debates, he was wearing a clavicle brace. It’s possible that the brace prevented the moment from being truly iconic.